


Letting Go and Taking Back

by Passions



Series: Value Beyond Measure [6]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-01
Updated: 2014-07-01
Packaged: 2018-02-06 23:30:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1876626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Passions/pseuds/Passions
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Belle's friends think she might be getting a little too caught up in her time with Rhys.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Letting Go and Taking Back

In most things Belle’s self-control was reliable and she had thought that might hold over to the decisions she made after her night with Rhys Gold. Unfortunately, well, quite fortunately as far as she was concerned, she had either over-estimated her self-control, or dramatically underestimated the appeal of spending more time with Rhys.

Their date had been on a Friday. The Tuesday after it she had called him, using the personal number he had written in his lovely scrawl on the back of a business card. They had arranged to meet again the following Friday night, and he had insisted that she continue to use Jefferson’s discounted rate.

After that encounter, when she had asked if she might request his services again the following week, he had suggested, somewhat hesitantly, that if she were interested in securing his services for three fridays and a weekend every month for three months he might give her a significantly larger discount on the package deal. Belle hadn’t been aware that such package deals were available in this sort of industry, but she had eagerly agreed. While she made a comfortable living, it wasn’t nearly enough to support how often she wished to see this man and six hundred dollars for three months was well within her means.

Of course, being unavailable for so much time on Fridays and weekends had made her friends suspicious and she had finally confessed to them, the Monday before her last weekend meeting of the third month with Rhys, about their arrangement.

Ruby and Emma had been appalled and while Mary Margaret tried to appear supportive, it was clear she was worried.

"Belle, this isn’t healthy," Emma had said, "You’re acting like you’re in a relationship."

The worst part about it was that they were right. Belle was treating the simple business agreement as a relationship, and that wasn’t fair to Rhys or to herself.

All that weekend with Rhys she had been quieter and less relaxed than usual as she tried to hold onto as much of the experience as she could. When Monday morning had arrived, instead of discussing a continual of their arrangement as she had planned to do the week before, Belle had told him she would call him if she wanted to schedule something else and fled from his house.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The first Friday after she had ‘quit her addiction’ as Ruby liked to say, Belle stayed in and cried. Being with Rhys had always been about so much more than sex, despite what she had tried to tell herself. The sex was incredible and she missed the feel of his body terribly, but he also made her feel warm, and safe, wanted, cared for, cared about. He made her feel like she was interesting and worthwhile.   
It was his job. Of course he was good at making women feel that way. But that didn’t diminish how much she missed those feelings once they were gone.

Her friends had been wonderful supports, though. Mary Margaret had brought over a number of movies of all different genres. Ruby had brought chocolate, fruit, ice cream, and other snacks from the diner. Emma had brought a couple bottles of wine as well as some extra fluffy blankets. They had all curled up together on Belle’s couch, under the blankets, eating the things Ruby had brought and drinking Emma’s wine, and watching movies - switching every time one of them threatened to make Belle upset.

The hangovers the next morning had been mild and despite her own, Belle felt slightly better than she had the night before. She was going to miss Rhys, but he’d never truly been hers and she was going to be okay without him. She was going to be better.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Being better - getting over Rhys - was taking much longer than Belle had expected it to. She spent nearly a month after the dissolution of their agreement dating a number of different guys. Only a few had made it past the first date and only one had actually interested her enough to convince her to spend the night with him. It had been a disaster, at least for Belle; after Rhys the other man was just such a disappointment that she decided to leave off trying to sleep with anyone for a good long while.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Just over a month after everything with Rhys had fallen apart, she was sitting with yet another date in a small, quaint restaurant just on the outskirts of Boston. Jason, her date, seemed nice enough. He was polite, wasn’t too forward, engaged her in a proper discussion rather than dominating it himself or forcing her to do all the talking. He was smart and witty, not surprising given his career as a journalist, he was handsome - just above average height, tan complexion, dark eyes and curly dark hair, a truly devastating bright smile.

He was perfect. Sweet, funny, and interested in her. It was ridiculous that she couldn’t appreciate him properly just because she couldn’t move past some relationship that had only ever existed in her mind.

Trying hard to let go of Rhys, she asked Jason about his favourite books and fell into the conversation with ease.

It wasn’t until she and Jason were making their way through their dessert that she truly regretted anything about the night. As their waiter put down first her chocolate and raspberry pudding and then Jason’s creme brule, Belle heard Rhys’ voice behind her, he and his date apparently being seated in the booth directly against her back.

From the sounds of their voices Rhys’ back would have been against Belle’s if not for the tall wooden partition between them, while his date sat across from him.

She kept quiet as she ate, focusing on finishing her food and her tea so that she could run. The woman Rhys was with had no compunctions about talking or privacy however, and it took Belle very little time to decide she did not like the woman at all. And not just because she was the recipient of Rhys’ attentions.

All through her pudding, tea, and waiting for the cheque, Belle was tense as she listened to the woman in the other booth berate Rhys, her insides curling unpleasantly as she tried to ignore the vitriol spilling from the woman he had brought to dinner. She had clearly spent time with him before because she made sure to take the time to deride his abilities in the bedroom - having had the pleasure of experiencing the skills Rhys had in that area Belle couldn’t fathom how anyone could determine them to be less than perfect - before going on to suggest that since he worked as an escort he was somehow incapable of doing anything else worthwhile. Which was absolutely ridiculous. Rhys didn’t flaunt his wealth, but it was obvious in everything he did, not least of all in his choice of restaurant tonight.

Finally the bill came and Belle dragged her attention away from the table behind her as Jason insisted on paying it. She should have left it alone, it wasn’t her place to interfere and Rhys was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. But he’d given only the barest responses back to the woman. Rhys Gold, who was known by most of Storybrooke for his sharp tongue, hadn’t even tried to defend himself against this hateful woman and Belle couldn’t stand it. So she stopped for a moment as she and Jason walked by the table and gave voice to a few of the thoughts roiling through her mind.

"You’d think, given your presence in this restaurant, that you might have had some education in manners. Apparently not. His time is worth more than you could ever hope to make and given how you’re acting I’m surprised he thought there was enough money on Earth to make him agree to see you." She nodded shortly at Rhys and then swept out of the building after Jason.

On the drive back to Storybrooke she tried to ignore the sense of uneasiness that had stolen over her at the other woman’s appearance. Lots of women had brown hair, many were petite.

Besides, the woman in the restaurant had had brown eyes and her personality was clearly nothing like Belle’s. Any similarities she saw between the two of them were just her mind playing out her fantasies that perhaps Rhys missed her as much as she did him. It was a ridiculous notion.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Seeing Rhys at the restaurant four days before had been more destabilizing than Belle could have imagined. She had been working so hard to keep him from her mind, but now thoughts of him were everywhere again. Thinking about the woman had made her wonder if Rhys had decided to stand up for himself once Belle had left, that thought led to questioning what might have happened if he had not, which led to wondering whether he had slept with the woman he’d been dining with.

And though that thought made Belle a little jealous, the biggest impact of it was to flood her mind with images of Rhys making love to her, and remembrances of how his hands and lips and tongue had felt on her, all over her, how he had smelled, how warm and soft his skin was. The memories were making her more hot and bothered, and more frustrated, than any titillating romance novel she had ever read.

Trying to recreate the touches with her own hands just wasn’t the same, and she knew from experience that trying to sate herself with another man just wasn’t going to work either.

On Wednesday afternoon, four days after seeing him at the restaurant, her control broke. She had woken up in a sweat, her mind still overladen with images of her body entwined with Rhys’, and attempted to banish the dream. She had dressed with care towards her oversensitive skin, trying to leave as little material to brush across it as possible. The knickers, bra, and tank top were fine, but her skirt, short and black, was satin and she couldn’t have picked a worse garment if she tried.

The cool material brushed against the tops of her thighs ever so tantalizingly, moving easily with her body, but teasing with small touches. Something had to give.

She had thrown away the business card with Rhys’ and Jefferson’s numbers on it, but she still had Rhys’ number programmed into her cell phone, so she called him directly.

He answered on the first ring.

"Belle?"

Her breath caught. He knew who was calling. Her number was still in his phone. Her need for him bubbled ever higher. “I’d like to make an appointment.” She tried to keep her voice calm.

"When, dear?"

"How soon are you free?" Belle knew her voice probably sounded stupidly breathless, but she was past caring, interested only in a chance to be with him again, to be full and alive as he made her feel.

"I’m free now. You can come over if you like." He sounded so calm and it helped her to gain a little bit of her own equilibrium back.

"The fee - "

He cut across her. “We’ll figure it out later.”

She nodded, though he wouldn’t be able to see. “Okay.”

"Okay."

She hung up the phone and hurried to her front door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The trip from her flat to his house should have taken a good twenty minutes to walk, but even in her heels - new ones that didn’t even remotely match her outfit - she managed it in half that time, arriving on his front porch red-faced and out of breath.

She knocked and he appeared to let her in as she fought to get her breathing back on track.

It all left her in a whoosh again though when he just looked at her and pointed to the stairs. “Bedroom.” His voice was practically a growl and she could swear she felt it reverberate through her core.

She kicked off her shoes and obeyed him, making her way quickly up the stairs and to the room she had missed so much, that seemed to somehow be a visual manifestation of his mind, and smelled so much like him.

Or perhaps he smelled like it? It didn’t matter. He had joined her quietly in the room and shut the door behind him.

"Knickers off and get on the bed. All fours."

Belle shivered in unexpected pleasure at the gravel in his voice and immediately did as he asked.

As soon as she had positioned herself, he was behind her, flipping up her skirt so it settled over her lower back and she could feel herself getting even wetter, knowing how exposed she was to him right now. She heard the clink of his belt being undone and then a soft tearing as he opened a condom.

And then he pushed into her. It was probably strange that her first thought at that moment of joining was home, but there it was.

Belle was sure this wasn’t common of escort service, this forcefulness. Every time she’d been with Rhys before he had been unfailingly gentle, always always always looking to her for what she’d like for him to do. Him giving her pleasure was always wonderful.

This was him taking.

She couldn’t believe how much that turned her on. She had never really been for or against rough sex, but this was definitely rough, his hips pistoning in and out of her powerfully, his grip on her hips hard enough she knew she would have bruises, and she was adoring every second of it.

She parted her legs wider and pushed back into his thrusts, trying to take his cock even deeper inside of her, her inner muscles clenching in delight each time he groaned.

And then he bent himself over her, holding himself up with his left arm next to hers, the fingers of that hand twining with hers on the coverlet of the bed.

His right hand moved from her hip around in front of her and down to rub at her clit.

His pace had slowed only slightly to accomodate the new position and his head hung next to hers, his breath hot on her neck and his panting loud in her ear.

The beginnings of a major orgasm were curling in belly, sparks of sensation racing through her with each touch to her clit, and she realized what it was that she liked so much about this kind of sex.

It was possessive. It felt like he was claiming her. And she so very desperately wanted to be claimed by him.

As if to prove her thought, he groaned and swung his head to the side, biting down on her shoulder as if to mark her as his.

The small pain of the bite didn’t even register with her as the thought of claiming him and being claimed by him threw her over the edge, screaming her completion as her vision went white.

Somewhere in the haze of pleasure she felt and heard his answering groan as he followed her, and then they were tucked into bed and Belle slept.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He woke her up later and fed her dinner before returning the both of them to his room and taking her again, just as roughly, this time facing her and leaving bite marks on her breasts after undressing her completely.

They slept again.

He woke her the next time by pushing into her while he was spooned up behind her. Now was slower, a more gradual build to the blinding finale, his hands giving attention to her breasts and nipples as well as her clit and twisting her head around so he could kiss her slow and deep while he fucked her the same way.

When they both came with a sigh rather than a shout they slept again.

When he woke her again it was morning. He made love to her in the shower before taking her downstairs and making breakfast and then driving her home.

She had kissed him again before leaving the car, lingeringly. Once inside her flat she had collapsed back onto her couch.

She’d been mad to give him up. She felt more at peace in her body than she had since breaking it off between them. Even if it wasn’t the ‘real’ relationship she truly desired, what she had with Rhys just kept her head straight and she wasn’t going to be able to stop seeing him again, of that she felt quite certain.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Their renewed meetings went on for a week, all with Rhys insisting they would deal with the cost later, before Belle decided to take the issue of payment up with Jefferson.

She went back to the website for the company for the first time since she’d looked at Rhys’ profile what felt like a lifetime ago and found Jefferson’s contact information on the main page.

The phone only rang once before he picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Jefferson."

"Belle! What can I do for you?"

"I just wanted to talk about payment for Rhys."

She could practically hear him frowning through the phone. “What do you mean? That was all taken care of ages ago.”

"No, I meant for the last week."

There was a long, long pause and Belle started to feel decidedly worried.

"Belle, Rhys retired from all this a couple of weeks ago. It was just after he said he’d run into you at that restaurant."


End file.
